Small Vices [Large Print] (Hardcover)

Spenser is hired by the now successful, leggy Rita Fiore. There is the usual overt flirting ". . . too bad you didn't . . ." and "Boy, if you only had . . ." and "you had your chance . . " that we've come to chuckle at and with the honorable sleuth.

Here he's asked to track down 'the real murderer' which will free a man wrongfully doing life in the hard place.

It's hard to pity the imprisoned man Spenser is asked to free. It seems most feel he doesn't really deserve to be freed . . . even the loyal friend Hawk feels that Alves belongs in jail, "either for this crime or one he got away with."

But Spenser, who again tells someone his first name but not us, gets too close and takes three slugs to the shoulder, leg and chest.

It takes Susan, Hawk, Quirk, Belson, Lee Farrel and Vinnie nearly a year to rehab Spenser, who loses 40 pounds in the process, has a hard time making his limbs do what he wants them to, and basically can't walk. But they do and honor and heroism prevail, villains are suitably thrashed, and Susan and Spenser hook up. Again. And again.

There's a lot of vulnerability in Spenser this time. Like Joe Pike in The Last Detective, his body has betrayed him and he is lost. Sadness, even tears. The pages describing Spenser trying to get up the hill in Santa Barbara after again learning how to walk again are riveting. Good stuff.

If I had a disappointment, it was Spenser's laissez faire attitude towards Hawk who took a year off to mentor/train/help him. But maybe that's part of the mystique, he knew how he felt and so did Hawk.

Great stuff. Rachel Wallace is still #1 for me but Small Vices is a close second.

In ï¿Small Vicesï¿, Spenser has to uncover the truth about Alves, a young colored man who has been accused and sentenced for the rape and murder of a white coed, Melissa Henderson. What follows is a tale of treachery, deceit, lies, police corruption, contract killing and violence. When Spenser is shot trying to uncover the truth, he hangs on to his life by a thread.

Parker has done another magnificent job at blending humor, suspense and believable settings. We are taken from Boston to New York, and even on a trip to Santa Barbara in Southern California. The sub-plot with Spenserï¿s wife Susan and dog Pearl blends in nicely with the suspense and does not slow down the pace of the story. If youï¿ve never read a Parker, you canï¿t go wrong with this one. But then Iï¿ve got another sixteen of his to read, so Iï¿ll let you know as I proceed.